Monday, February 02, 2009

Taking the shape of the thing in my mind

Those are inches on that ruler.

The whole pear thing started with a trip to Sydney with my sister. In a large chaotic clothes & jewellery shop in Balmain, she saw a pear pendant - I think it was enamelled - and agonised over whether it was worth the price or not. She didn't buy it. It was nearly her birthday, and later as we wanderered further up the street, I had an opportunity to sneak back and get it for her. And I didn't.

It stayed in my mind though, and a few days after that I had the idea to try a felted pear. On a much bigger scale of course, and since then the felted pears have just kept coming. I've only just remembered that at the same time I also tried to needlefelt a little pear for a pendant much like this, and it didn't work out - both the materials and the skills were lacking. When I did that felted bead course I didn't know if I would ever use those techniques again. Well, they came into play for this year's Christmas presents. First up was this little pear pendant for that same sister, about the size of the original one that we didn't buy. It started as a standard round bead, and I started to shape it while it was still quite soft.I wasn't sure if she would wear it - though I knew she would like it - but she does! (wear it, that is)These pears, on the other hand, are not made of felt. They are real pears - I found them at Choku Bai Jo, the farmers market shop at North Lyneham. And about the same size as the little pendant. I haven't tasted one yet but they have that lovely fresh pear smell.

6 comments:

Just when I thought they couldn't get any cuter! Pears smell like summer to me (or does summer smell like pears?). They bring back such good memories. I remember the perfect pear I scooped with a spoon to feed one of my babies. So much better than pear mush out of a jar.

I own a dozen reuseable bags for shopping. I usually go through the "bag your own" line but last week I let the checker bag the food. We gave her our bags and she was going to put plastic bags into them. I asked her if that wasn't defeating the purpose of the bags? She looked confused.